Special Zoning District 21

Special Zoning District 21: Drafting Regulations

The purpose of this webpage is dedicated to the effort of creating and adopting regulations. This page will be used to provide easily accessible information to landowners and interested citizens as regulations are developed for Special Zoning District 21 (SZD). This website will be used a central location for meeting notices, documents and other information.

Special Zoning District 21 Background

In April 2019, a property owner (outside the County’s 4.5 mile jurisdictional (Part 2) zoning boundary) requested assistance from the Planning Division to create a new Special Zoning District (SZD) under the Part 1 zoning provisions of state law. On September 27, 2019, the BOCC held a public hearing to consider the petition to create a Special Zoning District. The Board voted unanimously to create the district subject to a 30-day protest period. On November 12, 2019, the BOCC rescinded its vote creating the district based on approximately 75% of land in the district protesting. In December 2019, a lawsuit was filed challenging the constitutionality of 76-2-101(5) MCA, the protest provision for citizen-initiated special zoning districts created by Montana Code Title 76, Chapter 2, Part 1. On June 8, 2021, Judge Moses made a determination the protest provisions of the state law were unconstitutional and signed an order confirming the Special Zoning District was created on September 27, 2019. No regulations have been adopted for the district.